Watchmeister

I thought I would post a couple of watches as I am headed out of town for a few days R and R. This is the first - 24A with properly polished bezel, Ultimate crystal cyclops combo, revised datewheel, brilliant Ziggy tritium relume, Jimmy CG and gen crown on an OEM MX:

Anyone hanging around Viet Nam these days?

Good for you on making the best of a difficult situation. I recommend that everyone take a junker or buy a cheapie and take it apart. Even if you can't get it back together it is a good learning experience and fun. I was doing great until I had to take apart the movement. You know those movies when you get your car back and they hand you a bunch of parts and inform you your car no longer needs them.

Rolli- That is one of your premier projects. The Slob is a work of art.

Thanks for the tip. I did want to warn people that at least on the Chrono Avenger before you get excited about the dial you need a matching inner tach bezel. The stock chrono avenger comes with a black dial and inner bezel. I learned this the hard way a couple of years ago.

One has nothing to do the other. Neither good nor bad dealing got him banned. Completely inappropriate behaviour did. As it did at all but one other forum.

Thanks for the info. Which crystal do you think is more accurately shaped to the gen - Davidsen's or the standard? I assume both casebacks are 117?

Jimmy Fu made up a couple of hundred case sets a couple of years ago that were incredibly accurate to a particular series. I want to say it was D series but someone can correct me. They are set up for handwinds. They are very accurate to the gen including proper case tube sizing and truly 1:1 crown guards. He has not made any new parts in a couple of years and no longer does it. When you want specific parts you have to ask around.

Looks really good. Wear it well!

The ones I have done have always fit together well without adjustment.

The one with the grey "Luminor Panerai" is clearly a Davidsen. Is the other one another davidsen or a 4rth generation from the standard rep dealers? I am working on a longer term Fiddy project and am trying to assemble the best parts.

R11co- I warned you privately and now I am warning you publicly. Calling the admin team here and at three other forums liars is not constructive. Keep it up and you are going to find that you could be the first person to disappear from all 3 forums at the same time. Even Neil couldn't do that.

H- You are right. But unfortunately the industry standard advertising on reps and private label gens is "synthetic sapphire". I guess it should be called synthetic synthetic sapphire.

I am waiting on the AP ROO seconds at 12 - supposedly coming in April or May and the latest generation Chopard GT XXL which is supposed to come out in approximately the same time frame. I have given up on the Big Pilot.

Ubi- That is a must have for your collection. Hey wait a minute - perfect sub-dial placement!

You can find TTK via email, his skype which as I understand it he is usually attentive to or over at repgeek where he is still an active collector.

IMHO, start with the Josh version as it has the best CG. Not that I know whether I or the seller have any more but the gen ti crowns are handwind and I suspect were actually made for it. Finally, whip out your brass or gold paint, remove the jewels and paint the insert. I do hope DSN makes a better dial though.

r11co- Irrespective of your opinion, this matter is settled. TTK is not wanted here at this time by the folks who run this place. He has been given a good amount of leeway over an extended period of time. The team thinks long and hard before taking action on a banning or suspension. Unfortunately Neil has managed to do the one thing that an admin team has no choice as to how to respond. Personal or forum threats will not be tolerated by anyone. It doesn't matter who the person is. This is simply a very unfortunate situation. Stirring things will achieve nothing other than making you feel better. The fact that this loop was even started is a testimony to the fact that people on the Admin team do care about Neil. When was the last time you read a loop about someone being banned. And we do hope that he recovers quickly and his business thrives. And just so we are clear - if you take this down a nasty or personal route towards folks here it will not be tolerated. Not a threat - a fact. You and I have talked about this in the past as we try to avoid situations like this. This time Neil has made it black and white. The Admin team has responded in the only way it can.

I am a frequent traveller and have run into a total of 3 high end reps that I noticed. And yes I couldn't resist torturing a guy wearing a Honpo 187 in the Cathay Pacific lounge. And the meanest part of it all was I was wearing a gen PAM at the time. When I asked him where he got it he said one of his clients gives him PAM's as presents. An innovative answer with plausible deniability.

r11co- No one told Neil how to run his business. Quite the contrary, he largely did whatever he wanted. And in the end that is not what killed him here. When he fell behind he was asked to slow down, stop taking new orders and fulfill his obligations from past orders - more than reasonable. What killed him was his complete disregard for common human decency coupled with over the top threats. If you threaten someone it is a whole new ball game - kill or be killed. And guess what.. If anyone threatens the forum or persons doing what they can to keep it going than they are going to be banned - pure and simple. And here is what puts it in perspective, Neil has managed to get himself banned from 4 out of the 5 major rep forums of the last few years. So my advice to all who miss him (and I must confess that I have from time to time enjoyed his ascerbic wit) is not to hold your breath over here but head over to Geek or skype him because at present no one else is putting up with him here or RWG 1 or TRC or RWI. Having said all that I wish him no ill will. I hope his health rebounds and his business thrives. Just not here now.

I went to the trouble to try and achieve it. Started with a Honpo 187 which has a fabulous case, crystal and proper He valve and then tried to fit the 7753 dial from the later 7753 version which has a horrible case with a Swiss 7753 movement and ended up with unhappy ending as the dials were sized differently. I would let this one go.

You never know why there are the flaws there are. It wasn't until a knowledgeable forum member told me the principal reason why we often are looking at A's with too low a crossbar. It turns out that Panerai uses a custom designed font set and the font that most closely matches and is readily available to the manufacterers matches well on most letters but a capital A is not one.

I am pleased to see the membership at large understands. Neil has been and is a friend to many folks here. Unfortunately he has basically self-destructed at RWG as he has done at 3 out of 4 forums and there is no turning back. The admin team tried to do the right thing by him and the forum by asking him to take a breather from dealing to allow him to catch up with his prior obligations and regain his health. Unfortunately his response made the decision inevitable. As has been said innumerable times before threats to T or any member of the admin team will not be tolerated. IMHO, way too much time was spent on trying to figure out how to fix the original issue. His response made it a necessity. And yes I do wish him the best and a rapid return to health. Hopefully he will change his attitude at the one remaining forum where he still has posting privileges. We were not the first who were forced to resort to this. Hopefully we will be the last.

I was wearing my 231 today when I walked into an AD and saw the gen. An obvious flaw is the lack of brushing on the top of the bezel. Can you lightly brush the plating to achieve that effect or do you end up staring at base metal?

It is Asian 7750 - or at least certainly not a Swiss 7753. Recessed datewheel and wrong size and placement of the date window.